It was night time, and as usual, the Payne household was buzzing with conversation, games and mostly the wedding planning since it was only two weeks away now.

Kevin and Vanessa were both going to have their Bachelor’s party a day before their wedding and even though Kevin was against the idea of even having a bachelor’s party in the first place, Blake had convinced him otherwise.

Scarlet and Lauren were still not talking but since the wedding was so close, they were piled up with preparations and didn’t even feel the need to converse.

Everyone was busy in doing something that concerned the wedding ceremony.

Blake and Scarlet had gone to buy their suits because they were the only ones that still had nothing to wear. Lauren and Juliet had gone to buy dresses with the Payne women when Blake and Scarlet weren’t home, so they couldn’t go with them.

“How does this one look?” Blake held out another black suit as he looked at his cousin who looked bored. Since, the wedding had no such thing as a dress code, Scarlet and Blake were told to select any suit that they liked. Scarlet was done with selecting her suit, she was just waiting for Blake to decide, which he was finding hard to do.

“That’s the sixth black suit. It’s good though, just like the previous five.” Scarlet mumbled as she looked at Blake with a bored look.

“You could at least humor me.” Blake pouted as he went back to the racks of suits lined up. Scarlet sighed before she got her phone out of her jeans pocket.

Going to the contact list, Scarlet scrolled down to the name she had on her mind ever since the almost kiss that Lauren and her shared. She was deciding if she should call or not, it’s not like she would know who called her.

Scarlet had changed her phone when she came to her hometown, with only her heart just the same. Everything else was different, her hairstyle, her clothing style, her attitude to things in life, everything was different than the time she left her hometown to pursue a career in the magazine industry.

She had promised herself to never regret her decisions but here she was, regretting them more than anything. She regretted ever meeting Stewart, ever working for him, ever bumping into Katie at the diner she frequented. But most of all, she regretted ever meeting Lauren, who she met at a photo shoot.

Lauren had looked beautiful at the time with her face clean of makeup and her smile just as bright as ever. Scarlet would’ve asked for the model’s number if she hadn’t already gotten a girlfriend.

But now, when Katie had broken her trust and her heart, Scarlet couldn’t help but to think if she could have something with Lauren. They were just about to kiss when her two annoying cousins interrupted them.

Shaking her head from all those thoughts, she tapped the name and stood up while placing the phone to her ear.

Scarlet glanced at Blake who was busy looking at suits, before she stepped out of the store. The rings were still there, and Scarlet was now beginning to wonder if she would pick up her phone or not.

Blake, noticed that Scarlet wasn’t in the store anymore, and decided to investigate as to where she went. He found her standing outside the store and the way Scarlet was close to the door, he could hear everything.

“Hey... Katie?” The way Blake’s eyes widened, it felt like they were going to pop right out. Scarlet had a serious look on her face as she began to walk away from the store.

Blake looked at her leave through the doorway of the store, but didn’t follow her. He had heard enough.

“Are you buying this one?” A male worker came over to him and asked with a polite smile sent his way. Blake nodded and the worker began to walk over to the paying area.

Taking a glance over his shoulder, he followed the worker. “And the other one as well.” He spoke up to the worker, who nodded in acknowledgement.

***

“Oh, honey, Blake and Scar are back!” Laura yelled, and Andrew yelled an ‘okay’ back to his wife, when she opened the front door.

The house was impossibly silent and this caught Scarlet’s attention as she began to look around the house after entering. “Is everyone dead?” She joked and got a slap on the arm by her mother.

Blake chuckled as he just went to go upstairs. He had to tell Juliet and Lauren that Scarlet had called Katie.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he rushed to the guest room. The door was already open, and both the girls were sitting there with a board game out, focused on it.

Blake went over to them, and flipped the board with all of his strength getting a smile from Lauren and a curse word from Juliet, when their board turned over.

“What the actual fuck, Blake?” Juliet glared at him as she glanced at the sabotaged game now. “And I was winning.”

“Oh, trust me, I have something more interesting than a stupid board game.” Blake spoke as he sat down on the mattress where the two were sat, on his knees.

“What is it?” Lauren asked as her curiosity sky rocketed.

“Don’t humor him, he always has some interesting to tell when in reality it’s the complete opposite.” Juliet rolled her eyes, making Blake cross his arms over his chest in defense.

“Oh well, then I won’t tell you how Scar called a certain ex of hers when we were out buying suits.” Lauren and Juliet, both, looked at him shocked as he looked away from them with a smirk on his face.

“You already did.” Juliet spoke as she glanced at Lauren, who had a frown on her face. “What did you hear, exactly?”

“I just know that Scar called Katie, but before I could listen on to her conversation, she just walked away.” Blake explained making Lauren frown some more, if that was even possible.

“Maybe, she called to dump her.” Juliet shrugged. “Or to invite her to the wedding and get back together.” Blake spoke which got him a glare from Juliet when Lauren looked at him with complete horror on her face.

“What? It’s a possibility and besides what else could she do than to take her back. You lied to her.” Juliet face-palmed when Blake kept talking before, she flicked him on the forehead, but it was too late since the damage was already done.

Lauren felt worse than she did the day before. She blamed herself for everything now, she was at fault. She shouldn’t have lied to Scarlet, and she regretted it now.

“As long as she’s happy, it’s okay.” Lauren spoke with a cracked voice before she began to silently sob. Juliet comforted her new friend by caressing her back.

“Hey, you can’t just give up. And besides, Scar is an idiot. I’ll just go hit her upside on her head and she’ll come back to her senses and beg you to be with her.” Lauren shook her head while Blake began to comfort her as well by awkwardly patting her back.

While, this all was happening, Scarlet was stood outside the door with her back pressed against the wall, as she was deep in thought.

She hadn’t heard all of their conversation but she had heard the important parts and was ready to stop running.

***

Lauren was sitting on the rooftop, where she had found Scarlet sitting only a few days earlier, when she was hiding from her. The whole irony of the situation was, that now their roles were reversed. Lauren was hiding from Scarlet.

Her head was rested on her knees as her legs were pulled up to her chest.

It was dark out, and downstairs, the Payne men were preparing dinner since it was their turn to. Ever since, the whole family had united, they were taking turns in making dinner. And tonight, was the men’s turn.

Downstairs, Scarlet was searching through the house for the blonde woman that she wanted to talk to but couldn’t find anywhere.

Juliet and Blake were sitting in the living room talking over old-movies while the women were all gathered around the coffee table playing monopoly, including Vanessa. The kids were upstairs in the guest bedroom playing with their action figures and Granny Payne, was in her room sleeping just like most of the time.

“Have you guys seen Lauren?” Juliet and Blake, both looked at Scarlet with one of their eyebrows up with question. Sometimes, Scarlet thought that Blake and Juliet were twins that were born three years apart and to different mothers.

“Why?” Blake was the one that asked, and got a frown from Scarlet. “Do you know where she is or not?” Juliet smirked at her before she shook her head. “Nope.”

Scarlet glared at the two before she left to go search for her upstairs. “She’s on the rooftop.” Kevin whispered as he walked by Scarlet. She looked at him giving her a wink as he went back to the kitchen.

‘Great, does everyone around here know that I’m a lesbian, am I that damn obvious?’ Scarlet thought as she frowned before a mischievous smile came on to her face.

“Aunt Wanda, Blake is a man too. He should be cooking as well.” Scarlet turned around and walked up the stairs as she heard Wanda order Blake to go help the other male members of the family. Blake whined and yelled at Scarlet just as she laughed loudly.

Going up to the rooftop, Scarlet breathed deeply before she felt the wind blow against her face just as she waked through the small doorway of the rooftop, brushing her medium length hair over her eyes. Pushing away her hair, Scarlet walked out to the rooftop and sat down beside Lauren, who had her face turned the other way and hadn’t noticed the presence of the older woman.

“It’s cold.” Scarlet stated, catching Lauren’s attention as she turned her head to look at a smiling Scarlet. “You look cold.”

Lauren shook her head before she turned her head to look at the sky now. “Why are you here?” Lauren asked as she sighed out. “Because I had no choice, my mother had to push me out. I couldn’t have just lived inside her.”

Lauren looked at Scarlet with a serious face while Scarlet smiled awkwardly while rubbing her neck. “Too soon?”

“Too soon.”

Scarlet sighed before she scooted closer to the blonde woman and draped an arm over her shoulder, to keep her warm. Lauren, confused by the action looked at her and noticed just how much close they were now.

Scarlet and Lauren were only an inch away from each other’s lips. And the way Scarlet was breathing through her slightly parted lips, Lauren could feel the warm air hitting her own and her eyes involuntarily closed just as her lips parted.

“I’m sorry for leading you on.” Lauren’s eyes opened immediately and she looked into the older woman’s eyes in confusion. “You didn’t.” Lauren spoke as she started to scoot a bit further away from Scarlet, but Scarlet didn’t loosen her hold on her, instead pulled her even closer.

“You’re not a rebound, and I don’t want to promise you my heart and soul, when I can only give you my attention.” Lauren listened attentively as Scarlet brought a hand up to stroke her cheek lovingly.

“You deserve better than me, I can’t even give you the broken pieces of my heart. Everything still belongs to Katie.” Scarlet’s eyes began to fill up with tears as she looked into the green ones of Lauren.

Her eyes weren’t blue like Katie’s and her hair wasn’t dyed blonde. Her eyes didn’t show her the vast oceans and the sky in its purest form, but her eyes did show her the deepest of forests that were wrapping countless of vines and branches around her, promising to never let her go.

“But I can try.” Those words were all that Scarlet needed to admit before she brought Lauren’s face close to hers. She breathed against her lips, glancing from her eyes to her lips, asking for permission as her heart thudded aggressively against her chest.

Lauren tried hard to not show the smile that was trying to show on her face as she controlled her wildly racing heart, before she finally touched Scarlet’s lips with her own.

It was a kiss that was all over the place, as Lauren’s hand came up to hold on to Scarlet’s neck so that even if the older woman tried, she couldn’t back away from her lips.

Scarlet smiled between the kiss before her arm wrapped itself around the blonde’s waist. Lips moving and tongues meeting in a battle that was dominated by Lauren for a while before Scarlet began to control it.

Lauren smiled even after trying to control it from coming on to her lips and their lips broke off.

Scarlet’s eyes opened and this was the first time that she didn’t see the blue after an intense kiss, and saw green instead. But the warm and loving green was enough for her to lean in again and claim her lips in another battle, this one, a little slower and deeper than the first one.

“I’m still mad at you for lying.” Scarlet smiled as she spoke breathlessly as she broke off the kiss. Lauren looked at Scarlet while trying to catch her breath.

Suddenly, she remembered what Blake had told her and she scooted away from Scarlet as fast as she could, leaving Scarlet with confusion. “Why did you call Katie today?”

Scarlet expected the question so she wasn’t as much shocked as Lauren was when she told her the reason why, “I wanted to officially tell her that we were done.”

Lauren’s eyes softened and she bowed her head a little before she moved back closer to Scarlet without anything said, as she blushed embarrassingly. “Are you blushing?”

Lauren kept her head down and Scarlet laughed a little before she hugged Lauren, pulling the blonde close to her chest. “You are so cute.”

Lauren groaned but deep inside she was happy, scratch that, she was more than happy. And the only thing that was causing her this much happiness was the fact that Scarlet was going to try – just for her.

Like she was special. Truly, she believed in that moment, that she was indeed special. 

***

Here's a cute little family tree of the Payne family :) :